Parents Demand Answers After Drama Teacher Sentenced
Chris Higgins
In Lancashire, England, parents are demanding clearer answers after Chris Higgins, a piano and theatre teacher from Poulton-le-Fylde, was jailed for sexual communication with a child.
Higgins was sentenced this month to 10 months’ immediate custody after pleading guilty, and was also given a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Police said the investigation began in September 2024 after the student’s parents found messages on their daughter’s phone and contacted authorities. Higgins’ phone was seized, and sexually explicit and inappropriate messages were recovered, including references to taking the child to a hotel in London.
The case has now moved beyond court outcomes and into public scrutiny of safeguarding. Parents are questioning how a trusted adult in arts education was able to maintain that level of contact in the first place.
In statements shared by police, the victim and her parents described lasting emotional, academic, and social impacts, including withdrawal from school life and a deep loss of trust.
Chris Higgins
That context matters. This was not a random encounter. It was, by police’s own description, a case involving a teacher and a student, and a clear abuse of a position of trust.
Parents are not “overreacting” when they ask hard questions after a conviction like this. They are doing exactly what they should do.
If a school, program, or youth arts organization says “student safety is our top priority,” then this is the moment to prove it in public, in plain language, with specifics.
Who can contact students directly? Through what channels? Under what supervision? What gets flagged? Who reviews it? How quickly? What is the mandatory reporting protocol? What independent oversight exists when concerns involve staff with community status?
Because safeguarding is not a slogan. It is a system. And if the system only shows up after a child is harmed, then it is not a system. It is damage control.
One man has been sentenced. That legal chapter is closed.
The accountability chapter is not. And every parent asking for answers right now is asking the only question that matters: what changes today so this never happens again?